MANILA, Philippines – The Mapua Cardinals survived College of St. Benilde’s late rally to post a hard-earned 81-77 victory yesterday in the 2009 Filoil Flying V Pre-Season MVP Cup at the Filoil Flying V Arena in San Juan.
The Cards saw their 12-point lead, 77-65, vanish in thin air as Carlo Lastimosa led a 12-0 run that tied the score at 77-all, with only 48.3 seconds remaining.
Lastimosa, eldest son of former PBA superstar Jojo Lastimosa, scored nine points in that blistering run, forcing Mapua to call a timeout to map out their next play.
After the timeout, Macky Acosta scored on a jumper, and after a miss by the Blazers at the other end, KG Guillermo scored two more from the line for the Cards, who picked up their third win in six games.
Lastimosa finished with 23 points and Jacob Manlapaz added 10 for the Blazers, who took their fourth loss in five games in Group B.
University of the Philippines broke into the win-column with an 87-63 rout of Perpetual Help in the second game.
– With report from contributor Celest Flores
The tournament is backed by Adidas, Total Phils., Inc., SMART Sports, CDO, Pioneer Insurance, Philippine STAR, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Filoil, Flying V, Astaro/Karspersky, Douwe Egberts, Brothers Burger, Shell, Gourmet Coffee, Cecon/Surbex, Kolin/Syntax, Standard Chartered, DMCI Homes, Jaycees, V-Star, V-8, Tamayo’s Restaurant, Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP), Molten, the official ball, Insular, Channel V and Makisig Channel, the league’s official television coveror.